User blog:Bibimbap0920/Overhaul in VC - Core mechanic changes
This was originally a reply to Chad Pattan's Mynet wishlist blogpost, but as I wrote more and more, I wanted to see what other players thought about my proposals and I thought writing a blogpost of my own would hopefully reach out more people, here is a (slightly edited) reply: With Mynet taking over VC, we are undoubtedly going to see some changes - some noticeable, others, may be not so obvious. With that said, I believe VC needs more than just simple changes. There are certain archaic mechanics that needs to be changed or discarded in the game - this post is dedicated to sharing that list. Do note that this is from a perspective from a veteran, end-game player As always, please be civil and constructive with the comments! Core mechanics #Combine vitality, battle point (ArchwitchAW) and battle point (Alliance Ultimate Battle AUB) into one currency, along with their respective restorative item #*This is something I noted from the beginning - What exactly is the benefit of having 3 different currencies? The answer is none. BP for AUB in particular is exceptionally stupid, as it shares the same name as AW BP and all players are capped at 5 BPs. It provides no incentive for players to level in this aspect, which goes against the very basic philosophy of games. Combining the current 3 currencies into 1 provides an elegant solution that also simplifies the game for newcomers as well. #Provide resource sink for high level players #*I have maxed out all my buildings at around level 120, and finished expanding/cleaning up my kingdom by 130. The current level cap is at 200, and other than mindlessly building minigame buildings and selling them for exp, I have zero uses for resources for the next 70 levels, As such, I believe there needs to be a resource sinnk for players and it needs to be compelling. I would personally like to see something like Medal Girl, current archwitches (excluding F/LAW) and brittle keys/awakening arcanas. #Improve the role and significance of Defense stat #*Maxing out defense stat is currently #Change Awakening so each failure adds fixed percentile to all subsequent tries #*It is currently possible to "never" awaken a card, as each awakening tries are separate from one another. Some people have spent over 30 tries in awakening, and I believe a core mechanic should not be completely dependent on RNG. It is, what I believe to be, one of the primary sources of frustration in the game and by adding a fixed percentile per failure (I am personally thinking around 5%), it adds a hard cap on how many number of times you can fail, and each subsequent attempts will increase the chance that you will succeed. We already have a similar concept implemented in Ultimate Summons, so why not? #"Fix" the Twitter message (may be exclusive to English users) #*This is something that I've had issues with since day 1 and is something everyone (or almost everyone) experiences - the english twitter message is ALWAYS too long to be posted directly, and users need to shorten it before it is posted. Either shorten the default message or let us post on Facebook (whilst receiving rewards, of course). I personally never use twitter anyway, and the only reason why I got it was for additional resource. Gameplay mechanics #Remove the participation cap for LAW #*So LAW is something that you take down with your alliance... except that there's a limit of 10 people who can attack it. This is paradoxical and unfair to those in active alliance. Remove the limit and let everyone have a bite of the cake. #Change Witch Gates/Special Area exclusive encounters (vs Time Traveler and Key Bat) to drop items 100% of the time #*Encoutering special enemies in WG and SA is already rage inducing, and having them drop nothing is enough for one to flip a table. Small exaggeration, but encountering these guys should always guarantee a drop. I would personally like Time Traveler to always drop orbs, but that might be making it too easy... #Complete overhaul of how AUB works #*Current system of AUB is a joke. It is literally the worst feature of the game and the only reason why I personally participate in it is to help my alliance. SR takes 5 copies to HSR, UR requires almost full participation on all 4 rounds with winning 90% of the battles (for f2ps) and the non-card rewards are absolute garbage. Even 115 VP, which requires tremendous coordination and/or rodding is a vanity rewards/advertisement at best, as alliance that can reach that won't need any SRs. The battles also revolves around ONE strategy of using Max Attack damage all cards to one shot the enemy team, which, by the way, was the strategy used when the Alliance Battle was first introduced. It is stale, it is mindless and frankly, a joke of what is suppose to be a PVP. At its current rendition, it is merely a sudden death competition that is completely dependent on proccing first. Also, despite it being an "alliance" battle, the only team aspect of it is with respect to VP awards, which, as I mentioned earlier, are garbage. #*As such I believe a complete overhaul of the AUB is necessary. I personally have a pretty radical idea regarding this; similar to how Legendary Archwitches work, each alliance will "make" an Avatar that opposing alliances must defeat. An Avatar is a real time enemy, similar to LAW, that be based off of one or more cards that alliance possesses, and is a super-charged version of those cards with improved skills and stats. It is strengthened by donating resources (gold/ether/metal) or by temporarily donating another copy of the card, which can only be done by alliance members (each member can donate the card once, to prevent one person carrying the alliance with 10 copies). Specific type of resources can improve different aspect of the Avatar (e.g. Gold will improve health, ether will improve skill %/dmg, metal will improve attack/defense stat). Avatar can also be accompanied by Guardians (up to 4) who will fight with Avatar against alliances, and will also be based off of cards that alliance can choose. The number of guardians alliance can deploy can be tied to the levels of the alliance, and they too can be improved via resources, similar to Avatars. The difference would be that, similar to LAWs, Guardians will respawn with full hp every fight, but be significantly weaker (hp capped at 1m, limited number of procs). Seeing as how each round lasts an hour with 4 opposing alliances, an avatar's HP should billions. The rankings should no longer be individual based, and points are earned by amount of damage done, with huge amount of bonus points awarded for defeating the Avatar. After defeating the Avatar, additional points can be earned by fighting against the Defense Teams of Alliance members, or against Guardians. #*Obviously something like this would never be implemented due to its complexity, but some new format that challenges the players/encourage communication between members, bring relevance to currently defunct cards (healers, counterattackers), and truly make it an enjoyable/unique encounter instead of a mindless tapping game. #Improve ranking rewards for AUB and AW #*Why are the ranking rewards almost always worse than FAWs/LAWs? It's a freaking ranking reward, exclusive to top 300 players - the cards should be on the level of Box Summon cards to encourage fiercer rankigns. Currently, 100% free players can easily make the top 300 withot spending a dime - this needs to change. #*As a cherry on top, I think the top 10 players should get a card that will evolve any card in the game, to further increase the competition. #Hearts are refreshed after filling them for AW/FAW, with each refresh increasing the number of hearts by one #*One of the most frustrating things about VC is its evolution system, and requiring at least two copies to maximize a card's potential. Combined with the introduction of godly rare cards, it is now completely pointless to obtain a single copy of any SR/UR. And reducing RNG is always a good thing... as such, I believe that after filling the hearts for AW/FAW, the hearts should refresh and the amount should increase by one. This makes it so that players have a clear goal and don't have to depend on RNG as much. Miscellaneous features #More cosmetic items - seasonal, traditional, themed, etc... *One aspect of VC that a lot of players (excluding me) enjoys is decorating kingdoms and we haven't had a new decoration come out in ages! Bring back the pretties so I can make my kingdom fabulous. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you guys think! Category:Blog posts Category:Blog posts